


Lá Nár ná Maril - No Fire but Glass

by lferion



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Afterlife, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied Fingon | Findekáno/Maedhros | Maitimo, Poetry, Structured Form, Valinor, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21701740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: Is there honor here | In straitly going on?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Wandering in Middle-Earth





	Lá Nár ná Maril - No Fire but Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [arriviste](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arriviste/gifts).
  * Inspired by [all my war is done](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21498586) by [arriviste](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arriviste/pseuds/arriviste). 



> Written in response to the first chapter of Arriviste's [all my war is done](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21498586), but I believe it stands on its own. 
> 
> Many thanks to Morgynleri for sanity-checking and encouragement.

* * *

What love  
What war  
A heart may hold  
Immiscible  
Entwined  
No gold  
But lonely stone

What light  
What weight  
To grieve that which  
without recourse  
(others say,  
I say)  
Should not be mourned

What hope  
What hurt  
Might solace find  
Or healing ease  
Unsaid  
Untouched  
Unacknowledged all

No valor this endurance  
Under, over, knotted tight  
As ice  
As flails  
Blood beats withouten joy  
But not with cold despair

Grey glass  
Grey stone  
A fragile stasis  
Held against the dark  
Un-healed  
Un-whole  
Yet greeting every dawn

With work  
With ruth  
Is there honor here  
In straitly going on?  
To wait  
To make  
A place of watchful refuge

No gold  
No hope  
No blue and silver banners  
Snapping in the breeze  
No flame  
No ash  
In sere and hollow heart

No fire but glass  
No gold but ice  
From sky  
From land  
All color leached  
All shades of grey

And not un-beautiful  
But still, distrained, apart:  
Numb ease for open wounds  
Unspoken and untouched  
While lonely, not alone  
In waiting, watchful refuge.

Yet even this night shall pass  
And day will come

* * *


End file.
